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2. Mesmerized
1 year ago
1. Threaded
1 year ago
Here's the process for a full vector drawing where I don't really have any preconceptions, just having fun and seeing where the drawing takes me, I picked a base color and ran with it. This is shown at 1200x actual time, speed up from about 4.5 hours of drawing. Final drawing: dlanham.com/art/mesmerized/

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  • Alex Toth 1 year ago
    Simply incredible. I have been a fan of your work for years...
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  • Kyle Jones plus 1 year ago
    One of my favorites.. wow
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  • John 1 year ago
    Your amazing David, so cool to see your work unfold!
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  • Darren Geraghty 1 year ago
    Simply brilliant David.
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  • J.K. Rudeen 1 year ago
    Another fine example of what I love and hate about watching really creative people draw or paint. They make it look so easy. Please continue to post these types of videos. Maybe sometime you could talk us through it like a commentary?
  • David Lanham 1 year ago
    Audio *and* video!? It'll never catch on! But yea, that could be a possibility for the next one. Maybe. ;)
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  • matt daniels 1 year ago
    your just doing that with the regular pen path with a calligraphy brush? Amazing. Do you use the blob tool at all? How are the lines so smooth? Great work. Keep it up.
  • David Lanham 1 year ago
    It's the brush tool using a calligraphic brush with it's diameter set to vary with pressure from my tablet. I've tried the blob tool, but I like to layer my shapes so it doesn't work out too well for my workflow. I have it smooth my lines a tiny bit in the brush tool settings and anything I want smoother after I draw, I use the Warp tool to simplify it. Hope that helps :)
  • Chris Jacques 1 year ago
    Oh wow. I never knew the Warp tool had a simplify option!!! Thank you VERY much.

    Your stuff is amazing, I've never seen illustrator used so well to sketch.
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  • E.J. Coughlin 1 year ago
    Amazing.
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  • Jonas Lekevicius 1 year ago
    Mind-blowingly-incredible, sir.

    How do you manage your shapes? Do you use grouping, layers or something else?
  • David Lanham 1 year ago
    I use some grouping and some layers, if you look in the vid you can see two or three layers going on, the top has the characters and the lower is the background. I also quite often select multiple shapes that I need with the "select similar" button in the top toolbar.
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  • Maria Frey 1 year ago
    What tablet do you use?
  • David Lanham 1 year ago
    I use a 1st gen wacom intuos tablet, it's nearly 7 years old, but still works like a champ :D
  • Maria Frey 1 year ago
    Wow. As in back in the days of Chuck's class?! That's a great example for lastyearsmodel.org/
  • David Lanham 1 year ago
    Yea, I still have the same one I was using then!
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  • LKRaider 1 year ago
    Interesting to see how important the detailing work (shadows/highlights) is for the end result of the piece. It's what brings it to life.
  • David Lanham 1 year ago
    Oh yea, the shading is really the soul behind the shapes. I think that's why I enjoy Japanese animation so much, they get that little bit of shading that really makes things come to life.
  • iLexxx 1 year ago
    What kind of Japanese animation you like, David?
  • David Lanham 1 year ago
    I'll watch most any of it, but especially things from Gainax, Studio I.G. and anything Miyazaki of course :D
  • iLexxx 7 months ago
    Oh! Miyazaki! My favorite! :-)
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  • iLexxx 1 year ago
    Thanx for sharing that amazing works!
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  • Donnie Dinch 1 year ago
    this is unbelievable. Thanks for sharing.
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  • Sock Gardener 1 year ago
    Fantastic work. You seem to have a very organic way of working with Illustrator – an app I've always found really frustrating!
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  • UARRR! 1 year ago
    <3
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  • Ľubomír Račko 1 year ago
    briliant fast paint...your Illustrator skill - master :)
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  • Hexe Fish 1 year ago
    finally I can see the process of your work, thanks for sharing...
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  • Chris Jacques 1 year ago
    Hi, How are you drawing elements UNDER other elements? or is the time lapse just making it seem that way?
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  • trza 1 year ago
    this is incredible, thank you so much, i'm truly inspired, and i'm SO glad to see you're only using 3 tools mainly, totally makes me less stressed to give this a whirl.

    my main question is, do you think you could every do a very simple drawing but slow with a talk through? nothing 4 hours, naturally, but just a quick concept of your technique would be excellent, at your leisure if possible at all. thanks
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  • Mathew Young 1 year ago
    Have you ever published a book with your work? It would be great to see with tutorials, tips and hints, etc. A lot of work, but I would buy it, ha.
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  • tyrone slothrop 1 year ago
    Absolutely inspiring. Keep em' coming.
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  • Andrea Austoni 1 year ago
    Man you have amazing control of the Intuos!
    Are you using a medium or a large one? Screen size?
    I'm working on a cartoon right now and I'm trying out your wokflow instead of the blob tool. Let's see what happens.
    Thanks for posting this David, truly inspiring.
  • David Lanham 1 year ago
    I'm just using a medium tablet. The big ones make my arm do too much work :P
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  • Alvaro Fernandez 1 year ago
    Amazing. Thank you for posting this. :)
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  • Treavioli 1 year ago
    I can't believe this took 4.5 hours. Jeez. You're good and quick.
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  • Kyle Steed 1 year ago
    Love your free-flow imagination. I like how the main creature almost has a rubbery texture to it. Keep up the great work.
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  • John Manalo 1 year ago
    Inspiring David! Thank you for sharing your wisdom and skill with others...looking forward to trying out your techniques.
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  • Spencer Fuston 1 year ago
    Sorry if I'm being dumb, but what do you mean by Calligraphy Brush. I know what Calligraphy is but i can't find a brush in Illustrator that says Calligraphy.
  • David Lanham 1 year ago
    It's not a separate tool, it's part of the brush tool. If you look in the 'Brushes' palette and click the 'Add New' button, in the options there will be the option for the calligraphy style brush. So that's all that means, I don't think it's called that anywhere else in the UI :P
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  • democrazy 1 year ago
    damn special stuff! This has to be my most favorite / educational time lapse illustration vid ever...

    You have your tech down so well... I get the technological side I just have to work more on the lighting / shadows etc and where to put em! ... awesome stuff....
    **twitterededed**
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  • Zach Hodge 1 year ago
    Wow! I have been checking out your artwork and I'm simply dumbfounded!

    You have a crazy distinctive and unique style giving a consistently great showing in all of your drawings.

    I was wondering though, I'll try not to bother you with probably the same question you get from everyone else, but if I would like to start attempting to draw like you, what do I need?

    - AI
    - An intuos table this one (wacom.com/intuos/medium.php) perhaps?
    - Calligraphy style brush

    Anything else?

    I appreciate all the time you spend replying to people's comments, thanks!
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  • Snubz 1 year ago
    This is amazing, great stuff! I'd love to see a tutorial on the lighting and shading. I haven't used Illustrator much, so clearly don't understand it, but as you demark areas for shading or highlighting, it doesn't look like you are moving to the color palette for a new color; instead, the color just seems to automagically appear.

    Is this some sort of dodging/burning type function in Illustrator? I'm just missing where in the process the color is coming from when shading, etc.
  • That's exactly what baffles me. How do you do that, David?

    Your work is incredible when seen as a final piece of art. But the creative process behind it is just mindblowing!
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  • Walid Hassan 1 year ago
    Thanks for the upload Dave - great work!
    I've been a fan since you 'invaded our space'...
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  • Sirojuntle 1 year ago
    It's Fantastic!

    I didnt understand how your overlay/multiply vector doesnt affect the brush stroke.
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  • Felipe de la Parra 10 months ago
    cool!!!!! great!
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  • Gandolpho 6 months ago
    Cool... great work!
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  • Svetozar Avramović 1 month ago
    Hi DL,

    Your work is just awesome....this is the least I can say from my impressions to your work!!!
    I start all the works in PS*, and finish in Ai* (with all that "Live trace" and sh..)...
    I tried to do something like you do (in order to reduce my operation time), but my brush just does not behave as you have presented!!!

    Can you give me/us some guides, about what's the brush you use...."Rounded, Flat or Oval"....
    Or something with "Tolerances" or "Options" settings you would like to share with us...

    Or it's just up to speed......!?

    PS:
    I have never seen such a good sense of perspective, "off the cuff"....Just GREAT!!!
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